Watch Now


U.S. CBP aircraft aids seizure of huge cocaine haul in Caribbean

U.S. CBP aircraft aids seizure of huge cocaine haul in Caribbean

   A U.S. Customs and Border Protection P-3 Tracker aircraft, based in Jacksonville, Fla., led a French naval ship to intercept a fishing vessel in the eastern Caribbean Sea and seize 3.1 metric tons of cocaine.

   After tracking the Venezuelan-flag 'Don Matilde,' a 100-foot-long private fishing boat, crewmen on the CBP plane videotaped the crew of the boat dumping overboard bales of what was later determined to be cocaine.

   Subsequently, a boarding party from a French naval ship directed by the P-3 Tracker to the 'Don Matilde' recovered $62.5 million worth of cocaine that remained on the fishing boat. French officials have detained nine crewmen from the boat, all of them Venezuelans.